;b 981 
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.912d 
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SB 981 
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1912d 
Copy 1 



I Congress, ) 

d Session. \ 



SENATE. 



Report 

Nu. 932. 



IMPORTATION AND INTERSTATE TRANSPORTATION OF 

NURSERY STOCK. 



July 17, 1912. — Ordered to be printed. 



Mr. Chamberlain, from the**Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, 
submitted the following 

REPORT. 

[To accompany S. 4468.] 

The Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, having had under con- 
sideration the bill (S. 4468) to regulate the importation of nursery 
stock and other plants and plant products, to enable the Secretary 
of Agriculture to establish and maintain quarantine districts for plant 
diseases and insect pests, to permit and regulate the movement of 
fruits, plants, and vegetables therefrom, and for other purposes, 
report thereon with amendments, with the recommendation that it 
do pass. 

On page 19, in line 23, after the word "become," insert the word 
"immediately" and place a period at the end of the line. 

On page 19 strike out line 24. 

On page 20, in line 2, strike out the word "July" and insert the 
word "October." 

EXPLANATION OF THE BILL. 

In general, the FederaL powers granted in this act relate to the 
establishment of foreign and domestic quarantine, the issuance of 
permits, foreign certification, and the distribution to the several State 
or Territorial ofhcials of exact information in regard to origin, arrival, 
and destination of importations. 

To the several States are left the responsibility of inspection at 
destination of imported stock and the cleaning up and disinfection of 
local quarantined districts. 

Section 1 provides that "nursery stock" may be imported only 
after a permit has been taken out and when accompanied by a cer- 
tificate showing foreign inspection. The issuance of the permit is 
mandatory when the conditions of the section have been met. The 
section provides, however, that for scientific or experimental pur- 



Alafii 



■^ TKANSPOETATION OF NUESEEY STOCK. 

poses plants may be imported by the Department of Agriculture with- 
out the permit. Provision is also made for the importation without 
certificate of inspection, under proper regulations, from countries 
where there are no means for such inspection. 

While the issuance of the permit required in this section is manda- 
tory, it nevertheless affords a large protection, in that it gives oppor- 
tunity for a warning, if necessary, to be sent to the importer before 
he makes his importation if the goods covered are deemed dangerous, 
and also opportunity to warn the State official long in advance of the 
intended importation of stock if the same again are deemed likely to 
carry danger. 

Furthermore, the foreign certification can be made to have dis- 
tinct value, inasmuch as such certification to be acceptable can be 
required to be made by proper and accredited foreign officers, and of 
such character as to give assurance that the stock covered is clean. 

Finally, the permit and the foreign certification will act of them- 
selves very largely to prevent the importation of refuse stock by 
department stores or such as is now shipped in by foreign dealers to 
be sold at auction, and very much miscellaneous small importations, 
which have an especial danger from the difficulty of following up and 
inspecting such sendings. 

Section 2. Notification section; requires notification from customs 
officers, first receivers of stock, person or firm offering it for transpor- 
tation, and transporting firm or other carrier, the object being to fully 
advise the Secretary of Agriculture of the arrival and transportation 
of such stock to destination, information now only partially available. 
This information is to be transmitted by the department to the 
proper State officials so that all imported stock can be inspected by 
the latter. The Department of Agriculture acts merely as a clearing 
house for information, and the actual inspection of imported stock is 
left entirely to State officials. 

Section 3. Labeling of imported stock as a condition of entry. 

Section 4. Labeling of imported stock as a condition of interstate 
transportation. 

Section 5. After due notice and public hearing, makes provision 
for the inclusion under the foregoing provisions of the act, when 
necessary, of the plants and plant products excepted in the definition 
of "nursery stock, " as given in section 6. The quarantine sections 7 
and 8 and the subsequent sections of the act apply to all plants and 
plant products, including these excepted articles. 

These excepted articles will normally carry little danger of intro- 
ducing new insects or diseases, and therefore, to save both unneces- 
sary Federal supervision, extending to thousands of small seed packets 
and similar importations, and also to avoid placing unnecessary bur- 
dens on importers of such articles, the requirements of the first four 
sections, relating to the permit, notification, and labeling, are not to 
be placed on these articles except when some real danger develops. 

Sections 6 defines "nursery stock" as used in this act. 

Section 7. After due notice and public hearing, provides for ciuar- 
antining foreign districts to exclude plants or plant products which 
may convey fruit diseases or insect pests new to or not theretofore 
widely prevalent or distributed within and throughout the United 
States. Excludes such articles, which are to be specifically enumer- 
ated, until quarantine is withdrawn, even though such articles are 

nil ' 



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TEANSPOKTATION OF NUKSEEY STOCK. 



1^ 



^ offered for entry accompanied by a foreign certificate. Provides 
,-^ that, in its application to the white-pine bhster rust, the potato 
■i wart, and the Mediterranean fruit fly, the quarantine provisions of 
c this section shall become applicable upon the enactment of the bill. 

In the quarantine provisions of this section the particular plant 
conveying the danger is excluded, but no unnecessary restrictions 
are to be placed upon other plants not affected by such quarantine. 
The particular wording adopted in reference to such quarantine, 
namely, "diseases or insect pests new to or not theretofore widely 
prevalent or distributed within and throughout the United States," 
will enable the Department of Agriculture to declare a quarantine 
against any foreign pest whatsoever which should be legitimately 
subject to quarantine — in other words, to any pest which has not 
already been distributed and established throughout the United 
States — so that there would be no territory unaffected to which 
Federal quarantine could properly apply. 

Section 8. After due notice and public hearing, provides for do- 
mestic quarantine for any dangerous plant disease or insect infesta- 
tion new to or not theretofore widely prevalent or distributed within 
and throughout the United States. Notice of such quarantine is to 
be given to common carriers and published in newspapers. Plants 
or plant products so quarantined in relation to interstate shipments 
not to be offered for shipment, received for transportation, nor moved. 

The particular wording relating to domestic quarantine in this 
section has the same breadth of application as has the similar wording 
in section 7 in relation to foreign quarantine. 

Section 9 provides for the making of rules and regulations for the 
carrying out of the purposes of the act. 

Section 10. Penalties. 

Section 11 defines "territory" as used in the act. 

Section 12 provides for the establishment of a definite Federal 
horticultural board in the Department of Agriculture to carry out 
the provisions of the act. 

Section 13. Appropriation. 

Section 14. Date when the act becomes effective. 

CONDITIONS WHICH CALL FOR THIS LEGISLATION. 

The United States is the only great power without protection from 
the importation of insect-infested or diseased plant stock. 

Referring to European powers only, Austria-Hungary, France, 
Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and Turkey prohibit absolutely the 
entry from the United States of all nursery stock, and admit fruit 
only when the most rigid examination shows freedom from infesta- 
tion; and most of the others have very strict quarantine and inspec- 
tion laws, and the same is true of the important British and other 
colonial possessions. 

The United States thus becomes a sort of "dumping ground" for 
refuse stock. Diseased live stock may be, and are, excluded by law, 
but diseased and insect-infested plants have no bar against intro- 
duction. 

More than half of the important insect pests of fruits and farm 
crops are of foreign origin, and these now occasion a tax of nearly 
half a billion dollars annually. A properly enforced quarantine and 



4 TEANSPOETATION OE NUKSEKY STOCK. 

inspection law in the past would have excluded many, if not most, 
of these insect enemies and also many plant diseases. , . . . 

While, as just indicated, most of the important seriously mjurious 
insects and plant diseases, which are now levying. an enormous yearly 
tax on agricultural productions, have been introduced from foreign 
countries, there are still many other insect pests and plant diseases 
which may be excluded. There are important orchard and fruit 
pests in Europe and Asia the entry of which can be guarded agamst. 
There is also just now especial danger from introductions from Asia, 
where conditions are little known and where pests are very apt to 
be new and unusually destructive. 

An illustration of this is seen in the San Jose scale, which was intro- 
duced into this country from north China, and has been carried into 
every State in the Union on nursery stock. This pest has already 
cost the orchardists of this country $50,000,000, and is adding to this 
sum at the rate of $5,000,000 each year. This $5,000,000 annual 
charge comes from the actual cost of spraying operations, which are 
absolutely necessary to keep the trees alive and productive, and from 
the shrinkage in quantity and value of the fruit jdeld. 

The alfalfa leaf weevil is another of the recently introduced foreign 
insect pests, and its ravages in the great alfalfa regions of Utah are 
now well known, and there are no means of preventing its spreading 
ultimately throughout all the great alfalfa regions of the Pacific 
coast and the Mississippi Valley. 

Still another recently introduced pest is the European elm- bark 
beetle which has become established in Massachusetts, and is the 
chief agent in the destruction of the historic elms of Cambridge. 
The moribund or dead trunks of these splendid old trees are now 
being chopped down and removed at a cost merely for the removal 
of upward of $30 per tree. This new elm pest may m the end prove 
almost as serious an enemy to the elms in this country as the chestnut 
disease has proved to chestnut forests in the eastern United States, 
and this chestnut disease is also of comparatively recent foreign origm. 
Many other illustrations could be given, but these are perhaps sulfi- 
cient to illustrate the type of dangers which should at once be guarded 
against. . 

As already indicated, much could have been saved to the agricul- 
tural and natural forest resources of this country if legislation similar 
to this had been early enacted. Many of the plant diseases and insect 
enemies of the Old World now established in this country could un- 
doubtedly have been excluded, and this would have given this country 
a tremendous advantage for a long period in augmenting the quantity 
produced and lessening the cost of production. The past can not be 
altogether remedied, but the future can be safeguarded, and this act 
will go a long way toward accomplishing this end. 

The enactment of this legislation is especially urgent at this time 
to exclude several immediate dangers of the gravest character, as well 
as to afford general protection in the future against all important 
plant diseases and insect pests. 

The so-called Mediterranean fruit fly has recently become estab- 
lished in the Hawaiian Islands, and unless quarantined agamst is 
certain to be brought into this country from those islands or from 
other quarters of the world where it has gained foothold. It is a 
more serious fruit pest than any now occurring on this continent. 



TEANSPOETATIOlSr OF NUESEEY STOCK. 5 

Its larvae, or maggots, infest all sorts of fruits and many vegetables, 
and the presence of these in the fruit can not be determined except 
by cutting the fruit open. Its introduction would be most disastrous 
to the citrous and deciduous fruit ranches of the Pacific coast, and in 
fact to all our fruit-growing interests. 

Another very grave danger at this time is the likelihood of the intro- 
duction of the potato wart with imported potatoes. The short crop 
of last year has already led to enormous importations of foreign pota- 
toes, and these importations have come in many instances from 
districts where this dreaded disease is known to exist. We are, for 
example, now receiving quantities of potatoes from Newfoundland, 
where the potato disease is so firmly established that her neighbor, 
Canada, has strictly quarantined against all potatoes from this island, 
with the result that we are now getting all the surplus. It is signifi- 
cant also that Canada is now considering the establishment of quar- 
antine against potatoes from the United States because this country 
is allowing the importation of diseased potatoes from Newfoundland. 
The establishment of this potato disease in the great potato-growing 
regions of the United States would result in losses almost beyond 
computation. It is a soil disease, and once in the soil it remains for a 
period of from 8 to 10 years, and puts an effectual check on potato 
production, invading and destroying the potato tubers. 

Another grave danger is the likelihood of the establishment in this 
country of the white-pine blister rust, which has caused enormous 
losses in certain districts in Europe, particularly to seedling pine 
stock. This disease has during the last few years been imported on 
seedling pines into many of our States. Earnest effort has been 
made to destroy all such infested shipments, and it is hoped that this 
work has been successful. If this disease becomes established in 
this country it will result in enormous losses to our pine forests. In 
the case of this pine rust, most of the infested seedlings have come 
from a single nursery and district in Germany — a district which is 
more or less locally quarantined against, with the natural result cJf 
making us the recipients of its diseased products. A law under 
which such districts and such products can be absolutely quarantined 
against is imperatively needed. 

The danger which led to the first attempt to get this legislation is 
still in existence — that is, the likelihood of the establishment through- 
out the United States of the gypsy and brown-tail moths with nursery 
stock imported from Europe. During the last few years such infested 
material has been carried to no less than 23 different States. In 1909, 
7,000 nests, containing nearly 3,000,000 larvae, were found in ship- 
ments into New York State— seed material enough to infest the whole 
United States within a few years; and, as already noted, such infested 
shipments have been sent to many other States, extending from the 
Atlantic seaboard to the Rocky Mountains. So far as possible, this 
imported stock has been examined and the infesting larvae removed 
and destroyed by State authorities or, where these were not available, 
by employees of the Bureau of Entomology of the Department of 
Agriculture. It is by no means certain, however, that all infested 
material has been inspected, and the insect may now be established 
at remote interior points. 

It is scarcely necessary to comment on the danger to this country 
from the careless introduction and wide distribution of these two 



6 TEANSPOETATION OP NUESBKY STOCK. 

orcliard and forest pests. In a limited district in New England more 
than a million dollars a year has been spent for a long period in a 
mere effort to control these two insects, and the General Government 
is now appropriating $300,000 annually to endeavor to clear them from 
the border of the main highways, and thus check their spread. These 
expenditures do not take into account the actual damage done; but 
they do serve as a measure of the danger to the whole country from the 
recent distribution of these two insects on imported nursery stock. 

In this bill the quarantine provisions are made immediately appli- 
cable to three of these dangers, namely, the Mediterranean fruit fly, 
the potato wart, and the white-pine blister rust. 

With the exception of importing nurserymen there has been prac- 
tically universal demand for this legislation. The horticultural 
societies of many States have demanded it and have come solidly 
to its support. Resolutions favoring this legislation have been 
passed by numerous bodies of this character, and the horticultural 
and entomological officials of practically every State in the Union 
have long been urging its enactment. 

The opposition to this legislation in the past has been on the part 
of importmg nurserymen, and through these, of the National Asso- 
ciation of Nurserymen, the nursery interests fearing that such a law 
would put unnecessary burdens and restrictions on their business. 
The educational work of the last few years has demonstrated to most 
of these nurserymen that their fears have been groundless, and nursery 
associations of whole States have given emphatic support to this 
legislation. 

This bill has been discussed very fully with the committee on 
legislation of the National Association of Nurserymen, and this 
committee, for this National Nurserymen's Association, has accepted 
the bill as satisfactory to them and as desirable legislation. There 
is, therefore, now, so far as we know, no antagonism anywhere to 
this measure, and it has practically unanimous support from all the 
vast fruit-growing, forest, and allied interests in this country. 

o 



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